If it's zooming, then the segments should still maintain the same length relative to one another, no? i.e, as you zoom in, you shouldn't see one segment get longer while another segment gets shorter, but this is exactly what it appears like in the animation. Am I missing something here? The only explanation that occurs to me is that the segments are moving in the Z dimension, so foreshortening is occuring, but I believe the context of the problem is that the motion occurs within the plane.
They've been using surrogate mothers for endangered species for a long time. It goes back at least to 1983, when scientists used a common Eland antelope as a surrogate for the rare Bongo antelope. In 1989 they used a common housecat as a surrogate for the endangered Indian Desert Cat. Cloning has been around for awhile. Cloning endangered and extinct species and then using surrogates isn't exactly a breakthrough idea.
Right on. If I were to name the originators of "open source" (and not just the marketdroid, jump on the bandwagon, "how can we make money from this?" form of open source, but the underlying attitude and spirit which is the foundation of open source), I would submit names like Steve Wozniak, Bob Lash, Gordon French, and John Draper.
But even before them I would call attention to guys like Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen, who embodied the ideals that open source aims at WAAAAYYYY back in the early 60's. (anyone care to guess who they were?). These were some of the orginal hackers. These guys were freely sharing code before virtually 99% of the people reading this were born. RMS, Cygnus, and RedHat are new kids on the block. All they did was take a philosphy and capitalize on it. The movement has been around for a long time, and it is only now that the rest of the world is noticing what a lot of us have been doing for decades.
I hated eBooks until I got my iPAQ. Now I would prefer to read all my books that way. The iPAQ's great screen, coupled with MS's "innovative" anti-aliasing technology, makes for a perfectly enjoyable reading experience.
Now if M$ would just fix the damn Reader software so it can handle encrypted stuff from Barnes & Noble (or better yet, is anyone working on cracking M$ Reader's encryption scheme? I pay for my books, but I really want to avoid the hassle of the stupid encryption. If I pay for it, I'll read it where and how I please, thank you).
BTW, Baen has a great sci-fi selection, and they carry eBooks. They are currently giving three away for free. They use a subscription model, so you can pay a small monthly fee and get something like 10 books a month.
Obviously not as retarded as you. I was just pointing out that there is *another* handheld option for running Mame. But obviously your stunted intellect missed this glaring point.
No go back to popping zits, you middle-school imbecile.
Oddly, Compaq has also sent out letters saying that this problem *is* fixable, that they are working on it, and will publish the fix as soon as they can.
If you want gaming, go for the Compaq iPAQ. It's got a 206 Mhz strongarm w/ 32 MB RAM. It currently runs Doom, and I believe a Quake port is in the works. Also, you might want to check out games like Turjah at Jimmy's. There is a problem currently with the buttons, in that it only registers one keypress at a time, however Compaq has said it is fixable and will publish the fix. The nice thing about the iPAQ is that the OS is in flash, so it can be upgraded.
I have to agree totally. I don't think voice commands are going to be viable interface options at all until we essentially can talk to a computer just like we can another human being. i.e., we will need true AI. Assuming we had perfect voice recognition where the computer understood every word you said would still not be enough, since it is too cumbersome to have to say all the commands. The computer has to be able to figure things out on its own, and interrogate you about ambiguous things. Having to say "Computer, file, open, up directory, up directory, my stuff, project, budget." "Computer, file, print, all." Simply won't cut it. You need to be able to say something like "computer, print the project budget." And the computer might say "Would that be the Jones Project?" (deducing that it's probably the Jones project since that's what you've been working on mostly lately). For web surfing, it would suck to have to say "computer, open URL, http://slashdot.org". Instead, you'd want to say "Computer, what's the latest from slashdot?" or "Computer, have there been any Natalie Portman posts in the last five hours?" and it should be able to figure out what you mean.
You know, I always hear people say voice is the next killer thing, but I wonder. Do people really want to walk around, apparently talking to themselves? What about sitting at work? Imagine 100 people sitting in their cubes, all talking to their machines. "Computer, File, Open." "Computer, IRC, Open." It's bad enough that you can hear people yakking on their phones, what will it be like when everyone is talking to their computer too? Also, do you really wnat to have to speak your credit card number out loud when ordering something? I didn't think so. I'm just not convinced that voice recognition is going to be all that big.
I'm currently working with WAP at work, and while it does have its problems, it's not all bad. I've sent lengthy e-mails via hotmail over the phone without any trouble. The T9 predictive typing feature on some of the phones makes it pretty easy to type stuff in, and it's surprisingly accurate. Keep in mind that the point is not to let you have full internet access over a phone. It is for getting quick information, important news, and sending SHORT messages. For that it is great. Problems crop up when people want to have full-featured websites via WAP. It just ain't gonna happen. Work with the medium, not against it.
As for price, I can't speak for Germany, but in the US unlimited basic WAP service through AT&T is free as in beer.
Weird. I just got off the phone with AT&T to order my new WAP phone, and then I bring up Slashdot to see a story on the very same thing.
Anyway, I used to think WAP and the whole concept of having the web on a cell-phone was silly, but then I started working on a WAP project at work and I have had a change of heart. It is definately useful for quick information-retrieval tasks like looking up phone numbers and addresses, checking prices, stocks, news, etc. It's also great for getting access to corporate data on the road. As long as the data is carefully formatted to be easily viewed with the small form-factor, I think it works great. The problem I see is some people seem to want to cram all sorts of fluff onto the pages, and it ruins the whole experience. Just plain text. That's all we want.
What I'd *REALLY* love to see is Slashdot formatted specifically for WAP. You can currently view Slashdot on a phone, but my home page is split up into 32 screens on a Mistsubishi T250, which has a very large 10-line display. I should think it would be easy to have a Slashdot site that has no slashboxes or links, just a list of stories, each linking to plain-text comments. I'd use it constantly.
Of course, I can always stick a 128 MB flash card in my iPAQ, since I don't have an mp3 player taking up the slot. And I can also use CF and regular PC cards. The iPAQ's processor is fast enought that you can hop around applications without so much as a hiccup in the music. Not to mention there's no reason why someone can't create a dedicated mp3 player for the iPAQ if they wanted to. Try again:)
"That's not the price of the PDA, it's the price of the module. The highest end Visor (the Visor Deluxe) runs $250."
Right, so in total, for the Visor, mp3 player, and battery holder, you will pay $559.
For $499.99 you can get an iPAQ with more RAM, color display, faster processor, and did I mention it plays mp3's out of the box? Did I also mention it will run Linux? Hmmm...difficult choice.
"Don't ask why developers arn't making inovitive games, ask why the public aren't buying inovitive games."
They bought The Sims. That was innovative.
-Vercingetorix
Re:Mage : the ascension == a must-read
on
Mage The Ascension
·
· Score: 1
I know one thing. If I see another game title in the form of Blah: The Blahblah I'm going to puke. Can we get a little more creative here? Magic: The Gathering, Mage: The Ascension, Phantasm: The Weaving, Marketdroid: The Conformity ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Maybe I'm nuts, but this strikes me as pointing the way toward a method of ensuring artists get compensated, while at the same time allowing people to freely distribute whatever they want. I would be willing to pay extra $$ on purchases of media and recording equipment if that meant music could be free, and the artists would get compensated. The tax could go into a big fund and artists could get payed based on surveys of how much their music is being downloaded. Same thing for authors. You'd be free to do whatever you wanted with stuff. Of course, this plan still doesn't leave much room for the labels, but who cares?
Fighting "fire with fire" seems to have resulted in a measure of success for the PLO and the IRA. History is replete with those who took the "moral high ground," yet were unwilling to take a stand and fight the opressors. Most of them aren't with us any more. The United States didn't get where it is because the Founding Fathers passed out leaflets and held rallys. When English oppression became untenable they picked up guns and shot the fuckers through the head. If you think situations where a powerful minority dictates the status quo to a passive minority can be rectified through education and raising awareness, you're deluding yourself.
Pardon my negativity, but this thing strikes me as a supremely idiotic piece of hardware (at least for its intended purpose). I have to plug yet another piece of crap into my machine and, while conveniently sitting by my computer, read dead-tree periodicals and scan the codes in when I see something I like? Am I the only person here who would probably just type the damn URL in, rather than go to the trouble of picking up the thing and scanning the page? Also, how common is it to read magazines while conveniently next to your computer? I almost never do. That's what the toilet is for, and I'm afraid I don't have a terminal there yet. Am I missing something? Have people been demanding this capability? Has the lack of a magazine-computer interface been holding up the adoption of internet technology and impeding the advance of the new economy? This sounds to me like a pure marketdroid invention. No useful purpose, but at least you can slap a brand on it.
Slashdot Mirror
-Jeff
-Vercingetorix
They've been using surrogate mothers for endangered species for a long time. It goes back at least to 1983, when scientists used a common Eland antelope as a surrogate for the rare Bongo antelope. In 1989 they used a common housecat as a surrogate for the endangered Indian Desert Cat. Cloning has been around for awhile. Cloning endangered and extinct species and then using surrogates isn't exactly a breakthrough idea.
-Vercingetorix
This appeared in Rolling Stone back in 1972. It's written by none other than Stewart Brand. Spacewar.
-Vercingetorix
But even before them I would call attention to guys like Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen, who embodied the ideals that open source aims at WAAAAYYYY back in the early 60's. (anyone care to guess who they were?). These were some of the orginal hackers. These guys were freely sharing code before virtually 99% of the people reading this were born. RMS, Cygnus, and RedHat are new kids on the block. All they did was take a philosphy and capitalize on it. The movement has been around for a long time, and it is only now that the rest of the world is noticing what a lot of us have been doing for decades.
-Vercingetorix
Now if M$ would just fix the damn Reader software so it can handle encrypted stuff from Barnes & Noble (or better yet, is anyone working on cracking M$ Reader's encryption scheme? I pay for my books, but I really want to avoid the hassle of the stupid encryption. If I pay for it, I'll read it where and how I please, thank you).
BTW, Baen has a great sci-fi selection, and they carry eBooks. They are currently giving three away for free. They use a subscription model, so you can pay a small monthly fee and get something like 10 books a month.
-Vercingetorix
No go back to popping zits, you middle-school imbecile.
-Vercingetorix
Oddly, Compaq has also sent out letters saying that this problem *is* fixable, that they are working on it, and will publish the fix as soon as they can.
-Vercingetorix
Mame has been ported to the PocketPC. Check it out.
-Vercingetorix
Oh yeah, it can run Linux and X :)
-Vercingetorix
That's why I keep the latest issue of 2600 displayed on my desk. The funny thing is, most people who look at it end up wanting a subscription :)
-Vercingetorix
Gotta admit, when I first read the headline I thought Taco and CowboyNeal were headed for the slammer.
-Vercingetorix
I have to agree totally. I don't think voice commands are going to be viable interface options at all until we essentially can talk to a computer just like we can another human being. i.e., we will need true AI. Assuming we had perfect voice recognition where the computer understood every word you said would still not be enough, since it is too cumbersome to have to say all the commands. The computer has to be able to figure things out on its own, and interrogate you about ambiguous things. Having to say "Computer, file, open, up directory, up directory, my stuff, project, budget." "Computer, file, print, all." Simply won't cut it. You need to be able to say something like "computer, print the project budget." And the computer might say "Would that be the Jones Project?" (deducing that it's probably the Jones project since that's what you've been working on mostly lately). For web surfing, it would suck to have to say "computer, open URL, http://slashdot.org". Instead, you'd want to say "Computer, what's the latest from slashdot?" or "Computer, have there been any Natalie Portman posts in the last five hours?" and it should be able to figure out what you mean.
-Vercingetorix
'Course. I could be wrong :)
-Vercingetorix
As for price, I can't speak for Germany, but in the US unlimited basic WAP service through AT&T is free as in beer.
-Vercingetorix
Anyway, I used to think WAP and the whole concept of having the web on a cell-phone was silly, but then I started working on a WAP project at work and I have had a change of heart. It is definately useful for quick information-retrieval tasks like looking up phone numbers and addresses, checking prices, stocks, news, etc. It's also great for getting access to corporate data on the road. As long as the data is carefully formatted to be easily viewed with the small form-factor, I think it works great. The problem I see is some people seem to want to cram all sorts of fluff onto the pages, and it ruins the whole experience. Just plain text. That's all we want.
What I'd *REALLY* love to see is Slashdot formatted specifically for WAP. You can currently view Slashdot on a phone, but my home page is split up into 32 screens on a Mistsubishi T250, which has a very large 10-line display. I should think it would be easy to have a Slashdot site that has no slashboxes or links, just a list of stories, each linking to plain-text comments. I'd use it constantly.
-Vercingetorix
Of course, I can always stick a 128 MB flash card in my iPAQ, since I don't have an mp3 player taking up the slot. And I can also use CF and regular PC cards. The iPAQ's processor is fast enought that you can hop around applications without so much as a hiccup in the music. Not to mention there's no reason why someone can't create a dedicated mp3 player for the iPAQ if they wanted to. Try again :)
-Vercingetorix
Right, so in total, for the Visor, mp3 player, and battery holder, you will pay $559.
For $499.99 you can get an iPAQ with more RAM, color display, faster processor, and did I mention it plays mp3's out of the box? Did I also mention it will run Linux? Hmmm...difficult choice.
-Vercingetorix
They bought The Sims. That was innovative.
-Vercingetorix
I know one thing. If I see another game title in the form of Blah: The Blahblah I'm going to puke. Can we get a little more creative here? Magic: The Gathering, Mage: The Ascension, Phantasm: The Weaving, Marketdroid: The Conformity ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
-Vercingetorix
Maybe I'm nuts, but this strikes me as pointing the way toward a method of ensuring artists get compensated, while at the same time allowing people to freely distribute whatever they want. I would be willing to pay extra $$ on purchases of media and recording equipment if that meant music could be free, and the artists would get compensated. The tax could go into a big fund and artists could get payed based on surveys of how much their music is being downloaded. Same thing for authors. You'd be free to do whatever you wanted with stuff. Of course, this plan still doesn't leave much room for the labels, but who cares?
-Vercingetorix
Fighting "fire with fire" seems to have resulted in a measure of success for the PLO and the IRA. History is replete with those who took the "moral high ground," yet were unwilling to take a stand and fight the opressors. Most of them aren't with us any more. The United States didn't get where it is because the Founding Fathers passed out leaflets and held rallys. When English oppression became untenable they picked up guns and shot the fuckers through the head. If you think situations where a powerful minority dictates the status quo to a passive minority can be rectified through education and raising awareness, you're deluding yourself.
-Vercingetorix
Damn straight I do. No run along and play sonny, you're mama's callin' my name.
-Vercingetorix
Pardon my negativity, but this thing strikes me as a supremely idiotic piece of hardware (at least for its intended purpose). I have to plug yet another piece of crap into my machine and, while conveniently sitting by my computer, read dead-tree periodicals and scan the codes in when I see something I like? Am I the only person here who would probably just type the damn URL in, rather than go to the trouble of picking up the thing and scanning the page? Also, how common is it to read magazines while conveniently next to your computer? I almost never do. That's what the toilet is for, and I'm afraid I don't have a terminal there yet. Am I missing something? Have people been demanding this capability? Has the lack of a magazine-computer interface been holding up the adoption of internet technology and impeding the advance of the new economy? This sounds to me like a pure marketdroid invention. No useful purpose, but at least you can slap a brand on it.
-Vercingetorix
Rutger Hauer played the Soviet Commander Capt. Britanov, not Alec Guinness.
-Vercingetorix
If M$ was worried about reducing their OS leverage, why to the continue to make Office for the Mac?
-Vercingetorix